Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 12 of 12
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Chicano/Mexican "Culture" As A Rational Instrument In The Human Sciences, Alexandro José Gradilla
Chicano/Mexican "Culture" As A Rational Instrument In The Human Sciences, Alexandro José Gradilla
Ethnic Studies Review
The use of "culture" as an analytical category by social scientists presents an opportunity to examine how professional discursive formations are used to make empirical assertions. The social fact of culture is neither uniform nor unitary. Traditionally, culture has been thought of as a product of disciplinary research, not necessarily a variable for empirical study. When culture is used as a tool or instrument of scientific methodology, it loses its fluid nature as a disciplinary discourse. In this essay, I examine the specific discussion of the epidemiologic health paradox that states that the Chicano/Mexican immigrant "culture" serves as a protective …
From Cousin Joe To The Comoros: Orthography And The Politics Of Choice In Africa And African America, Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer
From Cousin Joe To The Comoros: Orthography And The Politics Of Choice In Africa And African America, Harriet Joseph Ottenheimer
Ethnic Studies Review
This paper explores issues of orthographic representation in two different projects, in two different locations, and draws some general conclusions about the role of an outsider linguistic anthropologist in working with individuals and their data. One project involved helping Cousin Joe, a blues singer from New Orleans, to edit his autobiography for publication. The other project involved developing a bilingual, bidirectional, Shinzwani-English dictionary for the Comoro Islands. Each project required an awareness of-and sensitivity to-the cultural and political implications of orthographic decisions.
Moving Mountains In The Lntercultural Classroom, Vivian Faith Martindale
Moving Mountains In The Lntercultural Classroom, Vivian Faith Martindale
Ethnic Studies Review
Today many Alaska Natives are seeking a higher education; however due to subtle differences in communication styles between the Native Alaskan student and Euro-American instructor, both students and educator frequently experience communication difficulties. This paper examines the differences in non-verbal communication, the assumption of similarities, stereotyping, preconceptions, and misinterpretations that may occur between Alaska Native and Euro-American cultures. University classrooms are becoming increasingly multicultural, and one teaching style may not be effective with all students. Those involved with education need to promote flexibility and awareness of cultural differences in order to achieve successful communication in the classroom.
Languages And Postmodern Ethnic Identities, Livia Käthe Wittmann
Languages And Postmodern Ethnic Identities, Livia Käthe Wittmann
Ethnic Studies Review
Specific discourses of our mother tongue (which is not always our mother's tongue) are supposed to decisively constitute our subjectivity. These discourses which are constituting us and are available to us offer possible identities. These identities carry ethno-culturally-specific meanings, which are symbolised within and by spoken, written, and non-verbal language/s. Are languages given the same relevance when giving meaning to postmodern ethnicity, if one understands postmodern ethnicity as a "stance of simultaneously transcending ethnicity as a complete, self-contained system but retaining it as a selectively preferred, evolving, participatory system?" Multilinguality, as it may correspond with aspects of postmodern ethnicity, seems …
[Review Of] Michéle Lamont, Ed. The Cultural Territories Of Race: Black And White Boundaries, Rainer Spencer
[Review Of] Michéle Lamont, Ed. The Cultural Territories Of Race: Black And White Boundaries, Rainer Spencer
Ethnic Studies Review
The aim of this volume is to illuminate various black and white boundaries in the United States through an examination of the "cultural dimensions of racial inequality." Fourteen essays touch on a wide variety of subjects including African American corporate executives, fast-food workers in Harlem, Afrocentrism, single-parenting, rap music, and feminism, to name only some. The authors of these essays strive to move beyond a static structure versus culture dualism and to instead highlight the theoretical and empirical importance of cultural scripts, all without reducing discussion to the level of "blaming the victim."
[Review Of] T. M. Singelis, Ed. Teaching About Culture, Ethnicity, And Diversity: Exercises And Planned Activities, Beate Baltes
[Review Of] T. M. Singelis, Ed. Teaching About Culture, Ethnicity, And Diversity: Exercises And Planned Activities, Beate Baltes
Ethnic Studies Review
Professors and students of teacher education can always appreciate theoretical discussions of multicultural education in books and journal articles. Even more useful are concrete examples such as the multicultural lesson plans in Sleeter's Turning on Learning (1998) and the case studiesin Nieto's Affirming Diversity (2000). Teacher-credential students find the lesson plans illustrative and relate to the students' stories in the case studies. Singelis' book Teaching about Culture, Ethnicity, and Diversity goes a step further in providing professors and students with experiences and hands-on activities that should help to enhance the sensitivity of teacher-credential students towards cross-cultural differences and help them …
[Review Of] William S. Penn, Ed. As We Are Now, Maurice M. Martinez
[Review Of] William S. Penn, Ed. As We Are Now, Maurice M. Martinez
Ethnic Studies Review
There is an old spoken French Creole proverb that goes: Bay Kou Bile, Pote `Mak Soje' (He who strikes the blow forgets, he who bears the marks remembers). As We Are Now is a book of essays that reveals hidden memories retained in the collective conscience of many of America's indigenous peoples who bear the painful marks of past history. The thirteen contributors discuss and analyze mainstream American responses to the act of cross-fertilization, an act of love by persons from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds who dared to intermarry or bond with an underclass -- people of color. Their …
[Review Of] Nathan Glazer. We Are All Multicultural Now, Jonathan A. Majak
[Review Of] Nathan Glazer. We Are All Multicultural Now, Jonathan A. Majak
Ethnic Studies Review
Some of the readers familiar with Nathan Glazer's writings may be surprised or intrigued, as the case may be, by his latest book, We Are All Multiculturalists Now. That title seems quite an extraordinary declaration from a man who became known in the 1980s for his neoconservatism as well as for his persistent criticism of certain liberal social policies such as affirmative action. Has he finally seen the light? Not exactly. The book is by no means an apologia nor is it a ringing endorsement of multiculturalism either. Indeed, the reader is held in some suspense till the last chapter …
[Review Of] Eugene Eoyang, Coat Of Many Colors: Reflections On Diversity By A Minority Of One, Russell Endo
[Review Of] Eugene Eoyang, Coat Of Many Colors: Reflections On Diversity By A Minority Of One, Russell Endo
Ethnic Studies Review
Eoyang's volume is a collection of personal essays that call for a more diverse conception of American culture and society. While the latter, of course, is a familiar if not universally-accepted theme, this actually is an unconventional and highly effective book because of the range of issues it covers and the author's basic writing strategy.
[Review Of] Fred L. Gardaphe, Italian Signs, American Streets: The Evolution Of Italian American Narrative, Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum
[Review Of] Fred L. Gardaphe, Italian Signs, American Streets: The Evolution Of Italian American Narrative, Lucia Chiavola Birnbaum
Ethnic Studies Review
This indispensable interpretation of Italian American narrative literature can fruitfully be used in many ethnic and cultural programs. It is a study distinguished by familiarity with vernacular Italian American culture, as well as consciousness of the losses as well as gains in education in the dominant WASP culture. Trying to reconcile the difference between what Antonio Gramsci called the organic intellectual and the assimilated intellectual, Gardaphe has adopted "a culture-specific criticism that is sensitive to both Italian and American cultures."
[Review Of] Verad Amit-Talai And Caroline Knowles, Eds. Re-Situating Identities: The Politics Of Race, Ethnicity, And Culture, David Covin
Ethnic Studies Review
While the lead title of this book, Re-Situating Identities, is entirely on target, the subtitle, The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Culture, is far off the mark. The book is primarily about identity. It has precious little to do with politics. This might be apparent from the contributors, whom the editors identify as sociologists, anthropologists, and cultural theorists. There is not a political scientist among them. The omission, however, is not necessarily indicative of an absence of politics, because sociologists, anthropologists, and cultural theorists often write good politics. That is not the case in this instance. Though the editors make …
[Review Of] Arjun Appadurai, Modernity At Large, Cultural Dimensions Of Globalization, Hope J. Schau
[Review Of] Arjun Appadurai, Modernity At Large, Cultural Dimensions Of Globalization, Hope J. Schau
Ethnic Studies Review
Modernity at Large is a collection of essays (most of which are reprinted from other sources, e.g., Public Culture) that link the themes of modernity and globalization to contemporary everyday social practice, and to group individual identity construction and expression. Appadurai takes up the conditions of modernity which for him include science as a dominant ideology, obsession with technological development, colonial social relations, and the primacy of national communities. Weaving these conditions with issues of globalization, which he defines as instantaneous worldwide telecommunications (phone, fax, and internet), increased international or transnational migration, the expanding scope and impact of mass media, …